State eyeing foreign investments

THE Government is creating a more business-friendly environment for foreign investment and the public sector reform is essential for increasing efficiencies, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says. He gave the assurance during the Australia – PNG Business Council meeting in Sydney yesterday. “Australia is our largest investment partner and we want to increase business opportunities,” he said. “We want Australian businesses to expand investment into Papua New Guinea, particularly into non-traditional areas that are outside the resources sector. “There are great opportunities in tourism, agriculture and the small to medium manufacturing sector. “Australian companies have technical capacity that will build our key sectors and from their investment we will have a sound return on investment.” O’Neill said the 2018 national budget to be tabled in Parliament next month would encourage businesses and create jobs. “There will be no big surprises. Our aim is to maintain stability. We have a long-term plan to reduce our deficit levels, while maintaining health growth in the economy and maintain stability around inflation and interest rates,” he said. O’Neill said one of the most important reforms underway was the creation of a more efficient and business-friendly public service. “An important priority for our Government is addressing the size of the public sector and to make it more efficient and business-friendly. We are going to streamline agencies that are not functioning efficiently and introduce reforms that will raise their service delivery to the expectations of our people and business community. “We will reform the entire system and enabling the private sector to be more engaged in non-core functions.”